Billionaire businessman Red McCombs said Wednesday he remains committed to continuing his investment in the Circuit of The Americas racetrack near Austin.

The 84-year-old San Antonio automobile magnate made the comment in response to published reports that he has been asked to decide between being bought out or purchasing shares of Tavo Hellmund's Full Throttle Productions.

McCombs said “without question” he wants to continue his ownership stake in the $300 million facility that will host the 2012 U.S. Grand Prix, a Formula One race scheduled for Nov. 18.

“Never has been any question,” he said.

Hellmund, once a driving force behind the effort to bring F1 racing to Austin, has sued investors Bobby Epstein, McCombs and others associated with the project.

Meeting with reporters Wednesday afternoon, McCombs brushed off reports in the Austin American-Statesman that under a buy-sell arrangement, he was faced with purchasing shares of Full Throttle or else McCombs' shares would be considered sold.

If McCombs had elected to pull out, the closing date on the transaction would have been Friday, the newspaper reported.

Without going into specifics, McCombs insisted he will continue to be involved financially.

“I'm there for the full ticket,” said McCombs, who signed on to the 10-year project in July 2010. “That's just a little impediment in the way.”

McCombs declined to comment when asked if he had bought out Hellmund, an Austin-based promoter and former race car driver who initiated contact with F1 officials five years ago.

“I will say we do expect to have some resolution to those issues in a timely fashion,” McCombs said. “But in dealing with the courts, I don't know what a timely fashion is.”

McCombs called an afternoon news conference to report construction at the Travis County facility is more than 60 percent complete and that marketing and sales efforts are ahead of schedule.

A former owner of the Spurs and the NFL's Minnesota Vikings, McCombs predicted the first F1 race in the United States since 2007 would bring in dollars that will equal or exceed the Super Bowl and would be carried by media all over the world.

“We're so excited about the opportunities that we have,” McCombs said. “I never dreamed that at age 84, I would be taking on another major, major role like this.”